Election thoughts...

We live in fascinating times...

Our nation is thoroughly, often bitterly divided. It seems like either of the two main parties could put a potato on the ballot and get at least thirty or forty percent support. Half the country would yell that the potato was going to ruin the economy while the other half screamed that the potato's economic plan was the only thing saving us from total economic collapse, and Rachel Maddow and Bill O'Reilly would be alternately extolling the virtues and heaping on the vitriol.

The presidential election was not - in my eyes - a repudiation of either candidate's economic plans, was not a ringing endorsement of moderation, a cry for cooperation, or a changing of the demographic guard. This election was just further proof that we are deeply divided along religious, demographic, racial, regional, and just about every other possible lines.

Overall, Romney carried twenty-four states, and Obama carried twenty-six. Romney has a huge swath of the center of the nation, while Obama took the populous Northeast and West Coast.

Romney carried white males in overwhelming and almost universal majorities...(62%-35%)

The educated voted for Obama, the uneducated for Romney. (source)

Obama won the young, Romney the old - neither by huge margins, though.

All of this data (thanks, CNN, by the way) has been analyzed to ridiculous extents. In the process some of the commentators have bemoaned the future of the Republican party because of the dearth of young, minority support. There is, however, a quote - often misattributed to Winston Churchill - that says "Show me a young Conservative, and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old liberal, and I'll show you someone with no brains." These demographics will shift. The Republicans will pick up support of minorities bit by bit, and Obama will be replaced in four years. So much of what will come in the next election will depend on things that we can't imagine right now.

I will say, however, that one of the more fascinating results of this election was that money did not decide the election. It influenced the election, surely, making competitors of candidates who might not otherwise have been. But the conservative Super PACs weren't able to - in their first attempt - buy the elections outright...thankfully.

Oh, and Republicans who became known for speaking out about pregnancy via rape lost. (source)